MUMBAI: BBC World Service has launched its first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service with live bulletins in Russian.  BBC Russian’s 10-minute IPTV news bulletins are to be broadcast Monday to Friday via Russia’s 24-hour live IPTV channel, Dozhd TV, and also will be available via the website bbcrussian.com.

Presented regularly by BBC Russian’s Oleg Antonenko and Famil Ismailov, the BBC Russian news bulletins offer a round-up of the day’s main stories.  Dozhd TV also features regular live two-way inputs from BBC Russian journalists in London, commenting on British and international developments.

While BBC World Service offers its TV programming online, the BBC Russian IPTV news bulletins are a first for the World Service as content produced as IPTV operation, from production to distribution, with no traditional transmission infrastructure.  Streamed direct from London to Moscow via a high-speed internet connection, these broadcasts allow BBC World Service to offer broadcast-quality bulletins without the costs of a traditional TV transmission.

Since moving all its output online, bbcrussian.com has increased its reach by about 160% year on year according to figures for January 2012. Audiences come to BBC Russian for trusted, balanced, relevant news and information directly, and also through content-syndication partnerships bbcrussian.com has with Russian-language news websites.

BBC Russian Editor, Sarah Gibson, says: “BBC Russian evolves with the world and with our audiences.  We are always looking for new ways to reach the audience in Russia who are turning more and more to the internet for their news, as recent events have shown.  The ability to reach a TV audience through a growing IPTV service like Dozhd TV is really exciting.”

Moscow-based Dozhd TV broadcasts live 24 hours a day as an IPTV channel as well as via satellite, cable, mobile TV, and internet-enabled TV.  Grigoriy Aleksanyan, Editor-in-Chief, Dozhd TV, adds: “This project will allow us to expand borders, to use the experience and the capabilities of one of the best broadcasters for the benefit of our TV channel.”

BBC Russian will air on Dozhd TV - tvrain.ru – Monday to Friday at 16.00 Moscow time with a look at the day’s top story, and at 20.00 with a full 10-minute bulletin of the day’s main news.  The bulletin will then be available via the website bbcrussian.com.